The ending of Special Ops Lioness season 1, explained

Paramount+’s Special Ops: Lioness season 1 came to a thrilling end with episode 8 on September 3. Cruz Manuelos completed her first mission as a Lioness, but there were far too many hiccups along the way. As the team inched towards a final reckoning in a bid to kill global terrorist Asmar Ali Amrohi, Cruz was struggling with the love for his daughter, Aaliyah.

On the other hand, the episode may also have been the last time fans saw Joe fighting on the field. The leader of the Lioness program, Joe, was struggling with being away from her family the entire season. Cruz and her husband Ethan have two daughters. Kate, her oldest, got into a car accident back in the US, which serves as a bit of a wake-up call for Joe. Here, we look at everything related to the ending of Special Ops Lioness season 1.

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Joe to take up a desk job, and Cruz finishes her first (and last?) mission as a Lioness

The clearest indication that Joe is finally ready to take up a desk job came in the season finale. After returning from the mission, she breaks down before her husband and claims the last assignment was too challenging. Joe looks set to take up a desk job, considering what occurred towards the backend of the mission.

Aaliyah decides to sneak into Cruz’s room the night before her wedding to experience “for the last time.” Still struggling with her conflicted feelings, Cruz ends up telling Aaliyah that she isn’t who she believes her to be. She then decides to go out and get water from the kitchen, where she runs into Aaliyah’s father for the first time.

Based on the conversation alone, Asmar looks to be far from a terrorist, although Cruz’s moral conflict is soon put at ease. Aaliyah’s to-be husband, Ehsan, walks into the kitchen, accusing Cruz of being a CIA agent. She kills the two men effortlessly and immediately calls for an extraction.

Cruz is seen well aware that she has, in a way, destroyed Aaliyah’s life. Upon escaping with the QRF team, she attacks Joe upon reaching the yacht. While the two are eventually able to resolve their differences, Cruz appears utterly determined to leave the Lioness program.

She accuses Joe of turning her into a monster and claims she only wants to live a normal life. On the other hand, Joe claims that Cruz had saved thousands of lives by killing Asmar and had done the right thing. Still, it will be fair to presume that Cruz will not return to the field in season 2 if there is one.

The same can be said about Joe, who had promised her husband that she would take up a desk job after the mission. Her determination will only be stronger after confessing to her husband the difficulty of the final mission. Season 1 seemed to end on a note of continuity and has a range of plotlines that can be taken up for season 2.

At the same time, with both the main characters signaling that their time has ended with the Lioness program, the show might already have aired its final episode. Furthermore, the upper members of the US government behind the Lioness program, Byron Westfield and Kaitlyn Meade, played by Michael Kelly and Nichole Kidman, were always against the mission.

The US government wanted Asmar Ali to survive, fearing repercussions from the oil countries that he had influence in. It will be fair to say that the season conclusion, as it aired, can be a precursor to a range of possibilities.

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For now, Paramount+ has not renewed Special Ops: Lioness for a second season.